Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Rangel Summons Media to a Tongue-Lashing

Hiroko Masuike for The New York TimesRepresentative Charles B. Rangel with his supporters at a news conference in his Harlem offices to speak about his re-election campaign.

After basking in the adulation of his political allies at his birthday party, Congressman Charles B. Rangel decided on Thursday to unleash a tongue-lashing on a much less friendly crowd.

Mr. Rangel delivered a scathing attack on the news media, saying the ethics charges against him were “in the minds of some reporters who are looking for a Pulitzer Prize” and that he was done answering questions about them.

Mr. Rangel, an 80-year-old Harlem Democrat, convened a news conference at his Harlem offices to discuss his re-election effort. But he spent much of the 40-minute appearance berating the media in defiant and caustic terms.

Mr. Rangel took reporters to task for rushing to judgment before he had an opportunity to present his defense at a Congressional hearing. Mr. Rangel faces accusations that he improperly used rent-stabilized apartments and failed to pay taxes on a villa in the Dominican Republic.

“If you’re really looking to have a good time at my expense, go to the playground and read what the defense is,” Mr. Rangel said in his gruff baritone, directing reporters to his Web site.

Mr. Rangel said he believed other politicians recognized the “negative power of the press,” which he accused of spreading “vile and vicious charges.”

The news conference followed a birthday celebration and fund-raiser for Mr. Rangel on Wednesday night at the Plaza Hotel that was attended by many high-profile Democrats.

On Thursday, Mr. Rangel said former Mayor David N. Dinkins summed up his views best when he raised his middle finger at a heckler who called the congressman a crook. “I can’t find a better way to say it,” Mr. Rangel said.

Mr. Rangel said he did not know how much he had raised at the party but that “I’m afraid I might be disappointed.”

He was unsure how much of the donations would go toward paying for legal costs. “If I had my way, not one red nickel,” he said.

Flanked by dozens of supporters who carried signs saying “He Delivers,” Mr. Rangel said resignation was “not an option.”

“No paper can deny anybody, even a Charlie Rangel, the opportunity for a fair and equitable and just hearing,” he said.

Stand strong Mr. Rangel…but I would advise, even if you are sure to be “exonerated” that you stop giving the media what it wants:

A large negative target.

Please do not forget, that while we rail against the vileness of the GOP and all its hate, these simple mistakes/errors do give off the impression of hypocrisy…those of us with a brain in our heads know that you hire an accountant to do taxes; therefore, if any are unpaid that falls on the accountant, depending on circumstances; however, misuse of rent stabilized homes would be better forgiven if you could prove they weren’t just used for campaigning.

With out a cogent defense of this, the real battle won’t be the ethics committee it will be for your re-election…please, tread lightly…you ARE distinguished, and we do need you. Once you’ve won, you can strike the bellicose pose.

Until then, remember you are dealing with a largely uneducated public, a.k.a. Short Attention-span Theater…who’s more likely to remember what’s on Fox than on your record, or even how to operate a computer to get on that ‘series of tubes’.

Haven’t seen a single explanation from him till now. All we hear is ranting and standard indignant talk. Downright self-righteous. He is 80 years old. Maybe he should just retire and take the least painful way out of this mess. I do perversely hope he sticks around and see how he handles the heat

Charlie, I respected your service in Korea, your principled stance on Iraq, the call for a draft and sharing the burden of defending this country, and especially for our willingness to go toe-to-toe with the idiots on Fox, but you have lost your way my friend. You fell victim to the worst behavior that an elected representative can exhibit, arrogance. You were elected to serve the constituents, not line your pockets with cash by gaming the system and skirting the law. The law applies even to those who write it Congressman.

Dear Mr. Rangel – While I agree with your perception that certain NJ beat type reporters trying to cross over to the big time over your dead political body by jumping off the deep end with ‘hot tips’ from right wing backed think tanks. And while some of them might have had fantasies about winning a Pulitzer based on the thin soup of publishing record of fact: that you have more than one legal rent stabilized apartment in the same building without objection or expectation of quid pro quo from its owners, I agree with James Logan above that a shark gains nothing by trying to eat minnows. If you have your team deconstruct the overheated and overblown ethics case, and do some digging on the Republicans and their motives, also through your attorneys and spokespeople it will work better, even if it delivers less emotional satisfaction.

He doth protest too much, this glad-handing representative who uses his position to extort millions from corporations and foundations to glorify himself with some CCNY boondoggle that will provide him with an office and no doubt a sinecure job, who hoards three extra regulated apartments while the landlord looks the other way (wonder why, investigate that), who cannot bother to get his income taxes right, and who sees nothing wrong with saying House members for whom he raised money should be lenient with him. He is self-pittying and shameless, too long used to living beyond his means.

My only answer to Mr. Rangel is that he should stop playing “careful and convenient” favorites when he lashes out in defensive discourse using tunnel vision to exclude the ones who actually investigated him and set the path for an ethics investigation: his fellow congressmen, (enemies and so-called friends) who opened up his can of worms so that anyone interested could use the “stuff” to his/her direct convenience…
We have all been witenesses to what inevitably happens next: Once you start that little mud-slide things will fall into the laps of purveyors of the news, commentators and all things related…His friends at the Congressional Ethics Committee picked up where the initiators left off…
Respectfully, Sir:
Talk is cheap, Mr Rangel…Go back to the SOURCE and either set things straight openly with those who dug up your mess, prove them wrong or admit ,apologize, and move onward or move aside.

So much outrage from commenters here over some nickel-and-dime missteps. Meanwhile, war profiteers and barbarian warlords have soaked us for billions, appealing to your patriotism. And what are you all doing about that except ranting “USA! USA! USA!” like the yahoos you are.

Just like any other politician, when you’re caught in a lie, a bad gaffe, or an ethics violation – disparage the people who caught you doing it – The Press.

Maybe Mr. Rangel should move to another country and run for public office there – albeit a Third-World country – where The Press is either publicly executed or mysteriously vanish when they hilight the wrong doings of that country’s politicians, like where those two condo units he owns in the Caribbean that he forgot to pay pay taxes on.

Charlie Rangel was my congressman for 14 years. I am a white woman (not a member of “those groups,” Thinker?). Rangel does an excellent job representing his constituents, who are not merely black (“those groups,” Thinker?), but also white, Hispanic and Asian. His district — Harlem and the upper, Upper-West Side — is one of the most economically, ethnically and racially diverse in the nation. Rangel wins his elections by a handy majority, and my prediction is that he will be reelected in November, by a handy majority.

Charlie Rangel is neither a crook nor a thief. The most serious charge against him amounts to his having used the wrong stationary to solicit political contributions. So he has three apartments — so what? He’s not on the take from the insurance companies, selling his vote to big corporations (which know that, while they can fete him, but they can’t buy him) or selling out his constituents to extremists (as the Republicans have to the Tea Party).

I don’t know if any of the posters here ever lived in Rangel’s district. As noted above, I did, for many years. I only wish that I and my husband still lived in the district, so that we could vote for Charlie in November.

I find it interesting that media racism can be so easily hidden simply by directing it at an elected official. Rangel has been repeatedly re-elected by his constituents. Nothing else matters. The NYT, Post, News and the rest of the country can all stay out of it.

Finally trapped like a rat by its tale, Rangel puts on his bold face and snaps at those reporting on his predicament – but unlike a poor rat, who is only a pest, Rangel is a criminal. Let him serve time for his crimes and celebrate his birthdays behind bars.

The man is either sociopath or a senile. I have one lasting impression of the Congressman. I once sat in the row behind him at the Apollo Theater. It was 1984 and occasion was the first Boxing Match ever held at the theater. All the Harlem dignitaries were there and if I remember correctly Mr. Rangel was seated with Percy Sutton and David Dinkins. They were look resplendent in tailored suits. The theater, run by Sutton was a wreck, the seats broken, the floors filthy and theater’s employees were on strike. Rangel and his friends appeared to live in some parallel universe, oblivious to the conditions around them. Sutton would, of course, soon lose control over the Apollo but that didn’t slow him down, or any of the elite who held court as if Harlem belonged to them. And, in a sense it did. I first visited 125th Street in 1979; I was there in February of this year. I was astonished by how little had changed. I have no idea what Mr. Rangel had done in 40 years. But after spending some time in Harlem, I understood why black youth hang in the Village—there’s nothing for them uptown. I wish the Times would do a little investigative reporting and tell us more about the Rangel, Sutton, Patterson and Dinkins families.

I suspect it would be a very interesting story.

What's Next

Looking for New York Today?

New York Today is still going strong! Though no longer on City Room, New York Today continues to appear every weekday morning, offering a roundup of news and events for the city. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com or in the morning, on The New York Times homepage or its New York section. You can also receive it via email.

Lookin for Metropolitan Diary?

Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. We will continue to publish one item each weekday morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online.

About

City Room®, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. Send questions or suggestions by e-mail.